


Bad Dreams

by entirelynogood



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-08-14 12:30:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8014042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/entirelynogood/pseuds/entirelynogood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren has a nightmare that dredges up a whole lot of painful feelings. Armin tries his best to help without making it gay, but fails at the latter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first shippy thing I've written since about 2008, so it's not going to be mind-blowing or anything. But I am looking to get feedback on how I write these characters so I can actually write some top tier shit, so if you've got critique please lay it on me.
> 
> I plan to write and upload 2-3 additional chapters for this story.

Armin didn't really know what woke him from a dead sleep at first. An unusual sound, definitely an unusual sound, but having been sleeping when it happened made it impossible to discern what sort of noise it was. He didn't have to worry over it long, though, because it picked back up for a moment more. Some sort of... strangled shout, and incoherent, half-shouted syllables. While the initial shout could have been anyone, the fragments of speech that followed were distinctly Eren's voice. Armin slipped out of bed, wincing slightly at the shock of the cold floor underfoot. In the time it took him to reach Eren's room, he heard the not-quite-speech sounds a couple times more.

  
He reached the doorway, and tenatively pushed against the door. It let out a low creak, which, given the current circumstances, may as well have been as loud as thunder. Armin approached his friend, extending a hand toward him. Eren suddenly rolled toward him, groaning and mumbling loudly, and Armin jerked his hand away, up to his mouth to stifle a yelp of surprise.  
After a tense moment, he extended his hand again, and rested it on Eren's shoulder for a few seconds before shaking his arm gently. And shaking his arm gently again. And a third time, just a little harder, with the added bonus of realizing just how damp Eren was with sweat. If it had been anyone else, it might have been a little off-putting, but being that it was one of his two best friends, he found it more a reason for concern than disgust.

  
As it turned out, the third time was the charm. Eren spoke a few more garbled sleep-words, and both opened his eyes and went tense at the same time. "It's just me," Armin said. There was a silence, with only the sound of Eren's fast, shallow breathing slowly falling back to a more regular pace. After some time, Armin ventured a guess. "Nightmares?"  
Eren exhaled slowly, through his mouth, as if steadying himself to keep from crying, then spoke. "Yeah."

  
Armin sat down on the bed, prompting Eren to scoot over and make space for him. There was another prolonged silence, and then Eren sniffled loudly and turned away. "Hey," Armin said, lowering himself down next to Eren, awkwardly trying to pull his larger friend closer to comfort him. "It's okay, it wasn't real." Eren seemed to pick up on what Armin was trying to do, and pushed himself into the embrace, and Armin suddenly found that his face was resting against the back of Eren's neck. He squeezed his arms tighter, and kept talking. "You're here, you're safe."

  
Eren cried quietly for awhile, then finally seemed to calm down. Armin shifted a bit to get more comfortable, which Eren seemed to take as him starting to get up to leave, and murmured, just a little embarrassed, "Please, don't go."

  
"I won't," Armin whispered, planting a quick kiss on the back of Eren's head, which he immediately felt a pang of regret about; a little bit because he was afraid it might seem weird to Eren, but mostly because the great abundance of sweat still clinging to it. Soon, Eren's breaths became deep and slow, punctuated with occasional quiet mumble and whimper. It was only then that Armin stopped trying to stay awake, and allowed himself to drift off to sleep as well.

  
\---

  
Morning came a bit sooner than Armin would have liked, given the sleep he'd lost comforting Eren, whom was currently sleeping sideways across the bed, legs draped over Armin's chest, pinning him there. As much as he didn't want to wake Eren, Armin really didn't have much other choice. He tried to squirm away, getting about to Eren's ankles before the taller boy's eyes opened just a crack. "Stoppit, stoppit," he slurred groggily. "Tickles."

  
Armin felt his face flush, and he panicked a bit, sitting upright, unceremoniously dumping Eren's legs onto the mattress. The sudden movement seemed to be enough to wake Eren up completely.  
Eren sat up as well, running his hands through his hair in what looked like a futile attempt to fix the monsterous case of bedhead he'd acquired. He looked at Armin, then around the room. "Oh," he said. "I didn't mean to end up sleeping on top of you like that."

  
"It's not like you were trying to do it," Armin said, gazing across the room, the opposite wall. "You just kinda... rolled around a lot in your sleep." As he finished speaking, he distinctly felt Eren flop back down onto the bed behind him. "Shouldn't you get up...?" Armin trailed off as Eren turned away from him.

  
"I'm not hungry," Eren answered, the beginning of an edge in his voice.

  
"We all have jobs to do, you can't just-"

  
The edge to Eren's voice was full-blown when he interrupted Armin. "Tell Hange to come get me when they're ready to start. I don't care if anyone gets mad."

  
"I'll, just... yeah. I'll do that." Armin said. Given the length of their friendship, he knew pressing the matter wasn't going to get him anywhere, and he really did need to be present and accounted for very soon. He decided it would be best to get on with the day and check back as soon as he could.

  
By some stroke of luck, this happened sooner rather than later, and Armin was able to slip away to check on Eren, a bit of bread in tow just in case his friend had changed his mind about not wanting anything. After a couple of quiet knocks on the door failed to yield an answer, Armin poked his head into the room. It looked as though the only movement Eren had made while Armin was away was to curl up into a miserable ball on the bed.

  
"Eren..." he said, in a voice that may or may not have been audible to the other boy. Armin crossed the room as quickly as possible, perching on the edge of the matteress and giving Eren a pat on the back. "Is the dream you had still bothering you?"

  
"Mmhm."

  
"Do you want to talk about it?"

  
"No."

  
There was a prolonged silence after that, with Eren staring into space and Armin just sitting there awkwardly, hand still resting on Eren's back.  
Eventually, Armin moved his hand up to hesitantly pet the top of Eren's head. He wasn't sure why he did it; it just seemed like a comforting gesture at that particular moment. Eren didn't protest, and after a moment or two began to relax. Pretty soon he was sprawled out, and had turned toward Armin. It didn't look as though he'd been crying; he just looked tired. They stayed that way for some time, until eventually Eren moved a bit closer, his head resting at an odd angle against Armin's leg, eyes closed.

  
"That doesn't look very comfortable," Armin said, just a hint of amusement in his voice.

  
Eren shrugged. "S'okay."

  
There was another stretch of silence before either spoke again. "You know we're going to get in trouble if we stay here much longer, right?" Armin asked.

  
"I don't care." Eren said, opening his eyes to look up at Armin. "Armin, you should just go. There's no need for you to be late too." Armin didn't move right away, instead, he absently continued stroking Eren's hair, listening to the muffled sounds of activity elsewhere in the building. Somewhere in the distant noise, he thought he heard his name being called.

  
He sighed, and stood. "I really do have to go now, Eren, I'm sorry." Eren didn't move, but Armin could feel his gaze as he made his way to the door. "Promise you'll be okay?"

  
"Sure," Eren replied, rolling over so he faced away from the doorway again. After stepping out into the hall, Armin heard him add, loudly, "Promise."


	2. Chapter 2

It rained later that day. Not the torrential, unpleasant downpour kind of rain; it was the kind that hangs like cold mist in the air, making the world seem more alive, more green. Armin wasn't purposely trying to find Eren, but ran into him anyway, as he had taken the longer, but quieter path back to the barracks to give himself time to think.

  
Eren sat amid the roots of one of the trees that dotted the area, on the side that faced the forest where he was less likely to be seen (and, presumably, disturbed). His jacket lay crumpled on the ground next to him, and his shirtsleeves were rolled up to let more of the rain hit him.

  
"Eren?" Armin called to him, but got no reply. Cautiously, he approached. He had already made his presence known, but still didn't want to startle his friend. When he was next to Eren, he tried again. "Eren?"  
Eren looked at him, or through him, maybe, as his eyes seemed a thousand miles away when their gazes met.

  
Armin sat down on the damp grass by the tree. Several minutes that felt more like hours passed, and Armin spoke again. "Aren't you cold?"

  
Eren leaned back against the tree, looking up into its branches. "Yeah, but the rain feels good." He continued to stare into the foliage overhead quietly, and several large droplets of accumulated mist splashed against his face before he said anything else. "It feels _real_."

  
"Real?"

  
"Sometimes everything seems so far away. And I start to wonder if I'm even me anymore. But stuff like this, like being in the rain, I feel it falling on me and I know I'm me and I'm here." He looked down, toward Armin, though he still seemed to be looking at something a long way off. "I probably sound crazy to you, I'm sorry."

  
"No, no," Armin said, a bit taken aback. "I don't think you're crazy. I want to help."

  
Armin scooted closer, so he was facing Eren instead of just sitting off to the side.

  
"Give me your hands," Armin said. Eren looked at him quizzically, but complied. Armin squeezed Eren's hands tightly, but gently. "How do you feel now?"

  
"Uh," Eren vocalized awkwardly, trying to look anywhere but Armin's face. He wasn't sure what kind of answer Armin was looking for, and didn't want to see what kind of excited look the smaller boy probably had on his face if there was a good chance he was about to let him down. "I feel your hands squashing mine? Is something else supposed to happen?"

  
Despite his efforts, Eren caught a glimpse of an excited expression on Armin's face when his friend spoke again. "Exactly, see?" Armin slowly pulled Eren's hands along as he moved his arms side to side, up and down. "I'm here, and I'm touching you. And you can feel it, so you're here too."

  
Eren slumped forward, resting his forehead heavily against Armin's chest, all the while somehow not breaking hand contact. He let out a long, loud breath, and Armin shivered as he felt the faint warmth from it in stark contrast to the cold dampness of the rainwater from Eren's hair that was steadily soaking into his shirt.

  
Not really knowing what to do, Armin just sat like that for a bit. Eventually, the rain picked up from a gentle mist to large, fat droplets. "We should go inside before we get soaked," Armin said, and felt Eren push his head against him in protest.

  
"Not yet." Eren spoke, voice muffled by Armin's shirt. "Please? I don't want anyone to know I couldn't handle a stupid dream." His voice sounded shaky on the last couple words.

  
Armin wasn't keen on sitting in the rain and getting soaked, but the nightmare Eren hadn't told him the specifics of must have struck one hell of a painful nerve, and he couldn't find it in himself to leave his friend like this. "Let's move closer to the tree, then." Armin let go of one of Eren's hands, but kept hold of the other to lead him under a thicker patch of branches, where only the occasional drip of collected rainwater made it through to the ground.

  
Eren nestled against Armin's shoulder. They'd always had the sort of friendship where physical closeness was the norm, but had circumstances been different, the gesture would've almost seemed... romantic in nature. But it wasn't, and Armin hardly even noticed the twinge of disappointment at the edge of his conscious mind. He looped his free arm around Eren, but said nothing, leaving him to his thoughts.

  
The sound of the rain was relaxing, and if not for the water that made it through the leaves, it would've been very pleasant. They sat there in silence for quite some time, until Eren spoke. "I dreamed," he said quietly, "I dreamed about my mom..." he didn't finish the sentence, but Armin could put two and two together, given everything else he knew about the situation.

  
"I'm sorry," Armin said, hugging him as tight as he could with one arm. Apologizing for something he had no part in didn't make much sense, but Armin couldn't think of anything else to say, really.  
Soon after, the rain picked up its pace, and the leaves were no longer proving to be an adequate shelter.

Eren sat up and gave the sky an exaggerated look of disgust. "I should've listened to you earlier, we're going to have to swim back." He stood up, helped Armin to his feet, and started off toward the barracks. His joke about swimming had caught Armin off guard, but if Eren had it in him to make a stupid joke like that, he was probably starting to feel better.

  
Armin scooped up Eren's now hopelessly muddy jacket, and followed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise there will be some good and proper gayness in the 3rd installment.


End file.
